


Chimney Sweep

by NikaylaSarae



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Child!Emile, Claustrophobia, Missing Children, Near Death Experience, Negative Self Talk, death talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikaylaSarae/pseuds/NikaylaSarae
Summary: Sure. It’s great to be able to see visions of missing children…but being able to find them still alive is another thing entirely.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 35





	Chimney Sweep

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written before Deceit's name reveal. 
> 
> Cross-posted with minor edits from my Tumblr account @stillebesat.

It was stupid.

So completely stupid. 

Hadn’t he learned time and time again in this city that trying to help others only meant finding a body? Only meant that he’d be trying to speak comfortingly -which wasn’t his forte at all, mind you- over the ugly sobbing of the hysterically crying parents who had to confront the cold hard truth that he’d been too late to help and that their precious angel was now literally an angel because no matter what he did or how hard he ran or how long he stayed up, Devlyn could never find the child the visions his messed up eye showed him until after they’d long gone still, cold, and...vacant. 

It freaking sucked. 

But it wasn’t like he could just  _ ignore  _ the visions of the missing children he saw. 

Missing children like one Emile Picani who vanished on his way to school five days ago. 

Sure. Devlyn did his best to avoid reading, hearing, or seeing any news in relation to this sort of situation. The cases were the children just...vanished. 

But if the visions struck, and they often did with a vengeance despite his due diligence in avoiding anything like the hard to miss  **Missing Child** poster on the freaking Grocery Store doors….it wasn’t like he could just say ‘ _ too bad so sad good luck with your next kid’ _ and move on with his life. 

Perhaps someone with a harder heart could have done it.

But not him. 

_ “Someone.” _

_ It was dark. Cramped. Like being shoved in a box. A long hard box. _

_ “Help.” _

_ A pair of bright blue eyes. _

_ “P-please.” _

_ His feet dangled, kicking freely. His shoulders were caught fast, the shirt pulled up to expose his stomach as he struggled.  _

_ “HE-HELP ME!” _

_ Snow fell on his head, piling up despite his attempts to shake it free.  _

_ “Help me.”  _

_ Bright blue eyes flared, looking directly at him, searing him to Devlyn’s shredded soul, purpling lips quivering as Emile’s already faint voice whispered, _

_ “Dee Dee.” _

_ “S-sa-sa-save me.” _

_ “Save…..me…...”  _

_ “..........save. Me…….”  _

Devlyn grimaced, blinking the memory of the vision from last night out of sight, pausing in his precarious climb up a rickety lattice to rub his gloved hand over his aching heart. 

Not him.

As much as he wanted to pretend to not care like any other troubled seventeen year old teenager struggling with the weight of the world on their shoulders--Devlyn couldn’t just do nothing and let the kids he saw just...die. He couldn’t ignore the giant WHAT IF that seemed to hang over his head like an itch that needed to be scratched that he could never quite reach. 

WHAT IF this time he found the child before they perished?

WHAT IF he actually reunited a family and they had this so called _ happily ever after  _ everyone seemed to be looking for?

It haunted him. Those WHAT IF’s. 

Sure the last three hundred times had ended in failure. But maybe...just maybe...this time would be different.

It  _ had  _ to be different this time.

Of course, Devlyn had told himself that like a hundred times already, but hey, if the lie was good enough to hold up over time, he might as well keep telling himself it. 

But this time. This time the child had called out to him. Emile had called him  _ Dee Dee _ . No other child had ever done that before in these cursed visions. It  _ had  _ to mean something this time. IT HAD TO.

He grunted, pulling himself onto the snow covered roof of an old abandoned house following the faint glowing imprint of a child’s figure that flitted across his bad eye like the shadows left after staring into a blinding light bulb. 

What he wouldn’t give to be wrapped up in a blanket in front of a space heater right now instead of following things other people couldn’t see. 

Gritting his teeth, shivering as the purely evil white bits of snow somehow made it through six layers of warm wool to melt against his skin, Devlyn pushed onto his hands and knees. “Okay kid.” He muttered, eyes darting around the silent, snow covered roof and then to the neighborhood beyond where he could barely, if he concentrated, hear people calling out Emile’s name two streets over. “Where did you go?” 

If the vision held any useful clues it had to be somewhere tight.

Somewhere where the legs dangled.

Somewhere where the snow could fa--His eyes fell on the crumbling chimney. A narrow space barely two feet across if that...and the faintly glowing footprints on undisturbed snow leading straight to it. 

Okay, Devlyn knew a thing or two about picking small tiny spaces to hide away from the world in...but this seemed a bit extreme. 

_ Cold. _

_ Still. _

_ Silent. _

_ Vacant. _

“Please.” The word left his lips like a prayer as he inched forward on his knees across the roof, his heart climbing into his throat with each precarious movement that threatened to send him sliding down the slope and to the ground three stories below. 

Please. Let Emile be alive.

Just once.

Let him succeed. 

That still didn’t stop Devlyn from hesitating as his fingers closed on the edge of the chimney. 

So many had been dead.

With the heavy snow storm of the past day and a half only now fading away--

What would make the outcome of looking for this child any different than the others? 

_ “Dee Dee…….save…..me.”  _

How could he save him when the temperatures had been so cold for so long? When he’d only had the vision  _ last night?  _

Devlyn gritted his teeth, shivering as he moved to his feet, carefully balancing on the sloped roof. 

Come on coward. Look and face your failure.

But it  _ had  _ to be different this time.  _ This  _ kid called to him.  _ This  _ kid would LIVE!

He pulled a small flashlight from his pocket and with a quick icy inhale of the winter air, shined it down into the dark empty void within. 

Or…

Not so empty.

_ Bright blue eyes.  _

With the chimney uncovered like this, any snow would have to be at the very bottom. Yet there, only three feet down, where the chimney merged into the roof, the snow rested in a cone shaped pile.

A pile marred with thin dark lines sticking through it. 

Hair.

A body.

Emile.

“KID!” Devlyn yelled, surging into the chimney, hissing as his shoulders caught on the edges. 

Please. 

Dontbedeaddontbedeaddontbedead. 

His fingers brushed the very tip of the snow. “Come on! KID. Emile. EMILE! Wake up. WAKE UP! KID. ANSWER ME!” 

Nothing.

No movement.

No signs of life.

Devlyn pushed himself out of the chimney, heart feeling like it would burst from his chest at any moment. 

He had to get closer.

Come on come on. He had to---Devlyn threw himself against the crumbling brick, heedless of how his feet slipped on the snow covered roof. He had to break it. Had to get closer! 

Again and again he hit the side of the chimney, using all the strength in his thin frame that he could to get the top half to shift. To deteriorate further. To--

He nearly fell off the roof as the chimney suddenly gave way sending him sprawling over the remaining portion. 

Emile.

Come on come on come on! 

Heedless of his precarious position, Devlyn used both hands to reach into the shorter space, brushing the snow from the child’s head first before he grabbed the bony shoulders to yank him up into freedom.

So still.

“Come on Kid! _ ” _ He begged, trying to keep his vision clear in his good eye as it fogged over.

Dontbedeaddontbedead. 

He pulled the small body from the narrow space into his lap. 

“Say something! Come on! Anything.” 

He--He was so cold. Like an icicle. Swallowing over the lump in his throat, Devlyn tore open his six layers of wool, pulling the boy in close to his chest, hugging his still form tightly. “Emile.  _ Please _ .” His voice cracked as he tugged off a glove to rub the boy’s cheek. “ _ Please.  _ WAKE UP.” 

WakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupicantdothisagainWAKEUP!

He couldn’t do this. Devlyn closed his eyes, rocking the body, breath hitching. He couldn’t deal with another dead child. He couldn’t--

“.... _ Dee? _ ”

He froze as the small form shifted against him, icy fingers pressing against his chest. His eyes flashed open as Devlyn looked down to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring up at him.

ALIVE.

He swallowed, nodding uncontrollably like a stupid bobble head statue.  _ Alive.  _ “Yes.  _ Yes _ . I got you, Em, I got you. You’re safe now.” He hoped, he didn’t know--he’d never had to deal with finding someone alive before. Did the kid need a hospital? Probably. He was cold. Frostbite. The kid probably had it--should he call out to the other searchers? To the police? To the boy’s parents? They had to be somewhere nearby right?

Emile sighed, giving him a bright smile before he ducked his head, snuggling against him and pressing his button nose into the base of Devlyn’s neck. “DeeDee.” He whispered as a tremor shook his body. “Knew….you….come.” 

“Of--” Devlyn cleared his throat, hugging the boy tight. “Of course. I--I’m here. You’re safe, Emile.” He whispered.

Alive. 

Safe. 

For once. FOR ONCE it had worked. For once the visions were a blessing not a curse. For once---

Devlyn let out a shaky breath, resting his chin on Emile’s head. 

For once he could say, “Let’s get you home.” 


End file.
